Charlotte de Witte and KNTXT took over ADE with a pop-up shop, live streams and a sell-out event at Amsterdam Dance Event.
But before I break this down, Charlotte de Witte has millions of fans, sold-out shows at Awakenings and is a star. This level of content might feel a million miles away from where you are – there are some key lessons here (even for me).
What I want you to take out of this article is how brands like KNTXT change their brand colours (super simple stuff) and use key dates of the year to monetise their revenue streams. At the end of the newsletter, I will leave you with some ideas to take forward, listing how you can work towards this in the future.
The blueprint to success is right in front of you, you just have to look in the right places.
KNTXT changed their brand colours to black and yellow
ADE’s brand colours are black and yellow.
Last Thursday, KNTXT changed all of their Instagram branding to black and yellow.
Here’s a list of what they did in 48 hours:
Changed the brand colours of their profile picture.
Changed the colours of all of their IG Story highlight icons to black and yellow.
Posted three posts within 24 hours announcing their ADE pop-up with a collaboration with @fillingpieces promising new, old and vintage merchandise.
Pinned these three posts to the top of their Instagram.
Changed the location of their bio to a pop-up store location.
Announced an ADE conference talk with their label team.
Announced a cocktail gathering for fans and industry members.
Released a Charlotte de Witte EP called ‘Apollo’ that is now #1 on Beatport in three days.
Charlotte de Witte – Apollo EP
Fans heading to the KNTXT x Awakenings show will no doubt be waiting for these tracks in her set. The label can also use this content to promote the show in the build-up and then reveal the IDs two weeks before the event. The campaign can build more momentum during ADE. What better brand to have sharing content for you than Awakenings?
The label can share raw clips from the event and use the tracks from the EP in the after-movie. And then there are fan videos and all of the music platforms like 1001 Tracklists and Nu Techno, who will be looking to share content from ADE to engage their audiences. ‘Apollo’ reached Beatport #1 after three days.
Filling Pieces hosts as The Pop-Up Store
KNTXT has announced a pop-up store that will open between 19-23rd October. Fans, industry members and Amsterdam locals are free to visit, hang out and spend money.
Fan activation points like this are becoming more and more popular during ADE. Pioneer has done this for years, creating a hub for like-minded people. The store acted as a meeting point in the city for four days – where KNTXT’s team can connect with their audience on a more personal level.
On Wednesday evening, KNTXT resident DJs provided the soundtrack as they hosted a networking event at Filling Pieces. Hours before KNTXT took over Awakenings on Friday night, Charlotte de Witte and KNTXT announced Charlotte herself would be playing a surprise set at the store. The set was streamed via Instagram Live and shared to the KNTXT Instagram feed.
The Merchandise
KNTXT is big on merch. Now they are starting to create special merch for Charlotte’s releases. The pop-up shop makes complete sense. Fans can expect vintage merch as well as new merch. There will also be vinyl and the chance to purchase previous KNTXT releases on wax. The key to labels to scale in 2022 is multiple revenue streams. Relying on music sales in 2022 is now how you scale a business.
Awakenings
KNTXT x Awakenings is one of the biggest parties of ADE. To continue the city takeover, Charlotte de Witte, KNTXT, Awakenings and the other artists on the lineup shared live photos and raw clips from the events on Instagram and Instagram Stories.
All of the content was filmed and shared by the KNTXT and Awakenings media team who were on hand all week providing a range of content from raw clips, photos, live streams and merchandise photoshoots.
So how can you replicate something like this?
Key dates happen every weekend of the year. You need to choose your dates carefully. Fabric celebrates its birthday the same weekend in October every year. FUSE celebrates its birthday in November every year. Sonar happens in June, seeing the birth of Off-Week. Choose your key dates and make this a tradition. Start small and who knows where you will be in 10 years' time.
Andrew at Socially Sound 🧢
